Mar 20, 2026 (MarketLine via COMTEX) --
The international textile and clothing industry is being offered new options in sustainable fabric production through the commercialisation within China of Shoucell, a next-generation regenerated cellulose fibre.
Developed by Zhang Suojiang and his team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), this innovation leverages ionic liquids (ILs) to challenge the dominance of traditional viscose and even the established closed-loop lyocell process generating cellulose fibres. It is being developed and manufactured by the Xinxiang Bailu Investment Co Ltd, producing Shoucell at mass, in a 1,000 t/y facility from the first half of 2025 in Xinxiang city, Henan province, central China.
Shoucell utilises non-volatile, room-temperature ILs as a solvent for cellulose pulp feedstocks. This represents a significant alternative to the century-old viscose process, which relies on carbon disulfide (CS2) and caustic soda - chemicals notorious for heavy pollution and toxic emissions. Unlike the viscose method, which is a derivative process requiring the formation of cellulose xanthate, the IL-based method is a physical dissolution process.
The CAS has, however, yet to disclose what the full chemical details of the solvent produced through the Shoucell process, although industry intelligence and recent CAS publications point toward imidazolium-based salts, such as [Emim][DEP] (1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium diethyl phosphate) and [Emim][OAc] (1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate).
These solvents offer high thermal stability and near-total recyclability, aligning with global "closed-loop" manufacturing mandates, said a CAS statement.
Despite its superiority in minimising waste footprints while expanding high-tech, sustainable fibre chemistry, Shoucell is nonetheless, likely to face growing competition from industrial leaders who have been investing heavily in other fibre production methods to tackle pollution issues. For example, Lenzing, the Austrian industry benchmark, recently completed a ae100m ($118m) upgrade of its viscose manufacturing site in Nanjing, China.
Lenzing said a big chunk of the investment went to deploying a closed-loop technology for sulphur recovery and waste-water treatment. The conversion enabled the Nanjing site to evolve from a general viscose supplier into a producer of LenzingaEUR(TM)s two eco-friendly viscose lines - Tencel modal and EcoVero viscose.
Top Chinese suppliers are also not standing still. The Shanghai-based Sateri, owned by the Singaporean conglomerate the RGE Group, is investing about Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY1.1 billion ($160.6m) in Yutai county, Shandong province, to establish a 600,000 tonnes/year (t/y) lyocell facility. Sateri already owns a 20,000 t/y lyocell facility in Shandong, utilising NMMO (N-Methylmorpholine N-oxide), a current industry standard for closed-loop solvent spinning.
But the Shoucell initiative offers reliability as it is building on past work elsewhere to develop cellulose fibre using IL. For example, FinlandaEUR(TM)s Ioncell which was developed a decade ago and owned by a Finnish startup Ioncell Oy. Targeting the premium market, Ioncell uses a superbase IL called DBNH OAc. After its debut with the Finnish designer brand Marimekko in 2014, Ioncell has been working on improving scalability.
Success, wherever it comes, will enable manufacturers to better tap a global cellulose fibre market projected to grow from $42.66bn in 2026 to $61.37bn by 2034, with Asia Pacific holding a a dominant 43% share in 2025, according to the research firm Fortune Business Insights.
This growth has been fuelled by a bifurcated consumer demand: developed markets are hungry for premium sustainability, while emerging economies seek affordable, high-quality alternatives to synthetic polyesters. China is the worldaEUR(TM)s largest viscose producer and consumer, with major domestic suppliers including Sateri and the state-owned Xinjiang Zhongtai Group.
These fabric production trends have been of use to retailers, such as Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), which has been pivoting away from using virgin cotton and moving towards regenerated fibres to realise its sustainability strategy. In 2025, for example, H&M signed a multiyear agreement with the Swedish company Circulose to secure the feedstock supply for cellulose fibre generation.
aEURoeThis deal will help us replace a substantial share of the virgin viscose used across H&M Group,aEUR said a H&M spokeswoman. She added that the group will continuously explore innovations that can support the group to decouple from resource use and extraction.
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COMTEX_479394100/2227/2026-05-18T16:04:35
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